I met a golfer from Ireland last week online who challenged himself to shoot a round of par golf within one year of starting to play regularly. Although he played as a youth and off and on as an adult, his rounds prior to the challenge had resulted in scores close to 100.

Shaving 30 strokes in one year was quite a lofty goal. On the first day of his challenge he shot 103. Then, 363 days later, John Richardson shot a round of 1-under par at Blackwood Golf Centre! He disusses this remarkable journey at Scratch to Scratch. John has a book in the works too. Make sure to request his first three chapters! It's an enjoyable read.


John Richarson, Scratch to Scratch

Although John's approach was much different than mine - he took lessons, hit tons of balls, and read dozens of books - we both focused heavily on improving our mental game and faced many of the same obstacles. What makes John's accomplishment especially impressive and unique from mine is that he made his goals public prior to starting the challenge. This not only added an additional element of pressure that I didn't experience, but created an army of naysayers as well. I, on the other hand, kept my goals to myself, and only started sharing my experience after accomplishing some of the major goals I'd set for myself. His approach undoubtedly added difficulty to the challenge, adding an element of humiliation if he failed.

Meeting John and learning about his remarkable archievment, inspired by a childhood dream, made me reflect on my own golf story. This is an opportune time to do so too, since this month marks my 2nd anniversary. I have, as it turns out, made several attempts to play in the past, but never stuck with it. A trait John and I apparently shared.

I played once a week one summer when I was 13 or 14 years old when I worked as a caddie at Inverness Golf Club, an exclusive private golf course outside Chicago near my home in Palatine. Caddies were allowed to play for free every Monday when the course was closed to members for greenskeeping. I remember the first time I shot 100, shooting 55 on the front and 45 on the back. I was pretty proud of that 45! I don't remember ever breaking 100 that summer. I do remember trying to get my Dad to take me out to a public course that summer, but he had made up his mind years before that he didn't have the temperament for golf. He had little or no patience and quite a temper. He was however, a very good athlete. I always wondered if the fact that his dad died instantly of a heart attack while playing golf in his home state of Mississippi was another factor. My grandfather was 60 years old when he died. By the time the other members of his foursome got to him on the fairway, he was already gone. It was at that time that my dad began a lifelong commitment to health and fitness. He's now 78 and in as good a shape as I am. I've never exercised a day in my life. He still won't play golf.

When I was 21, stationed in Idaho Falls in the Navy, I went to K-Mart and bought a full set of clubs and bag for $99. I had just completed training as a reactor operator at a submarine training facility in Idaho, and after graduating #1 in my class, I was given the opportunity to stay on as an instructor for 2 years. I jumped at this opportunity since it reduced my submarine duty commitment from 4 years to 2 years. Trust me, less time stationed on a submarine is a good thing. Our rotating shift work schedule in Idaho was grueling however. We worked 7 graveyard shifts followed by 2 days off, then 7 swing shifts followed by 1 day off, then finally 7 day shifts followed by a welcome 5 days off. Not only was the rotation difficult to adjust to, but each day consisted of a 4-hour round trip bus ride to and from the training facility in the desert. As a trainee, we worked 12 hour days as well - 16 counting travel time. Anyway, it was during these 5 days off each month that I spent a little time playing golf one summer. I played 2 local courses in town. I broke 80 for the first time during a round on the easier course. I found it pretty easy to shoot rounds in the 80's with my very low quality clubs. That experience with golf soon ended once I got shipped off for submarine duty in San Diego. I then got discharged, got married, started a career, and started a family.

I didn't play golf again until I was 35 years old when I played for a couple months with friends from work. I was living in San Diego at the time and we mostly played Balboa Park, but ventured over to Torrey Pines once. I bought another complete set of clubs for about $400 without getting fitted. I still have this Penzer golf set stashed away in the garage somewhere. The clubs are way to short for me and way to upright. But, like before, I found it easy to get back in the 80's and broke 80 during one round. Also like before, I didn't stick with it. I started playing roller hockey with my son that same year along with switching from skiing to snowboarding, and made them the priority. Golf would have to wait.

Then at 41 years old, living near San Luis Obispo, good fortune struck. I was managing a very large software project that took our team three years to complete. Midway through the project our company was bought by a competitor. Soon after, the dot-com boom began and our new company's stock skyrocketed. Stressed out and burned out at the end of the project and after many years of crunch modes and deadlines - and with some stock option equity to hold me over for a while - I quit my job, unsure of what my next career step would be. In the short term, I decided I'd give golf another try. I bought some Orlimar woods and used Ping Zing2 irons. Once again, I didn't spend much on clubs, I didn't take lessons, I quickly got back in the 80's, and I broke 80 during one round. But four months after starting, I got a bad case of tendonitis in my left arm hitting too many balls off a mat at the range. I was still playing hockey at the time, and found that hockey didn't irritate my injury as much as golf. I quit golf and stuck with hockey. My tendonitis didn't heal for nearly 3 years. I finally quit hockey after suffering from too many years of back pain.

Finally, two years ago, now 46 and after gravitating back to work in web and software development - to help put my two kids through college - I got a call from an old co-worker from the prior job. He was recently laid off from work and was looking for a golf partner while he hunted for a new job. He is an avid golfer who plays nearly every weekend, carrying an index of about 7 or 8. We started playing together once every weekend and continue to do so pretty regularly to this day. For the remainder of that first year, I mostly limited my play to these weekly rounds and practiced once during the week. As in the past, I was shooting in the 80's pretty quickly and managed to break 80 twice. Towards the end of that first year, I established an official index and got down to 10.3 by year's end.

Beginning last January, after now enjoying my longest ever continuous stretch of playing golf (10 months), I decided to pursue the game more seriously. I joined a men's club to get some experience in competition and started playing once or twice during the week in addition to my weekend round. Without any concrete goals in mind, I decided I just wanted to see how good I could get without taking lessons and without getting caught up in club and ball technology. Although I bought a new driver, hybrid, wedge and putter, I'm still playing my Orlimar woods and used Ping irons that I bought 7 years ago.

I considered taking lessons this time, but after one free session with a well-respected local pro, I bailed after hearing him share a story about another golfer "he'd gotten down to scratch". I know that's his job and he's good at it, but I didn't want to feel like someone else did it for me. I wanted to see what I could achieve on my own. Like throwing a ball, shooting a puck, or swinging a bat, I figured swinging a golf club at a ball that doesn't move was just as easy and didn't require professional help. I was right.

I found myself very drawn to the philosophy and approach presented by Fred Shoemaker in his book, Extraordinary Golf. I learned about Fred from a local yoga instructor who knows Fred quite well and worked with him in the past at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, co-founded by Michael Murphy, author of Golf in the Kingdom. Shoemaker's approach inspired me to learn how to coach myself by becoming more aware of my own swing. The biggest benefit I gained from self-coaching is that I avoided the ongoing dependency on tips and fixes from others that many golfers seem to suffer from.

Secondly, I improved quickly!

I began last year with an index of 10.3 and a round of 92 on New Year's day during the grand opening of a new local course. I succeeded in reducing my index to 4.3 by October when I shot my first round of 72, a 1-over par at Avila Beach Golf Resort (69.6/130). Then, in December, just 337 days after starting my more frequent play, I shot my first 1-under round of 71 at Cypress Ridge Golf Course (68.5/124), improving on my first round of the year by 21 strokes! I also shot my first ace last year.

Last month in February, I shot my best round thus far, scoring my first par round at the very challenging Monarch Dunes Golf Course (70.7/135), the course where I'd started last year with the round of 92 and which has now been rated among the top 10 new courses in America for 2006. It took me 21 rounds at this course to break 80 last year and 37 more rounds after that to reach par! This par round and subsequent other rounds have helped me get down to my current index of 3.4, making my goal for reaching 2.0 by the end of 2007 seem within grasp.

It's been quite a journey so far, and I thank John for inspiring me to look back and enjoy it. And even though I've focused quite a bit over the past year on performance, my main goal for the future is to keep playing, play more courses, stay healthy, meet interesting people, and experience even more enjoyment and personal growth from this great game!

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